Did healthy life awareness affect the behavioral or cognitive avoidance attitude from COVID-19? An observational study.

Aim: This study purposed to evaluate the healthy life awareness (HLA) level versus the COVID-19 avoidance attitudes. Materials and Methods: A single-centered observational study was conducted in the Family Medicine Clinics of a tertiary hospital between April 30, 2021 and July 30, 2021. The HLA scale was used to determine the participants' HLA levels. In addition, the avoidance attitudes from the COVID-19 scale score assessed attitudes toward avoiding COVID-19. Data were analyzed with E-Picos (MediCRES) Statistical Programme. Results: Of the 311 participants aged 30.79 ± 8.37 years, 58.52% (n = 182) were female and 41.48% (n = 129) were male. A negative relationship between the HLA and cognitive avoidance scores (r = -0.255, P < 0.001) and a positive relationship between HLA and behavioral avoidance scores (r = 0.119, P = 0.036) have been indicated. The results of a binary logistic regression, taking the presence of a higher HLA score as the dependent variable, have shown that high awareness was observed in women, approximately 1.7 times more than in men [odds ratio (OR): 1.684, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.058-2.696; P = 0.030]. Participants with high HLA had 1.06 times higher behavioral avoidance scores than others (OR: 1.066, 95% CI = 1.012-1.455; P = 0.049). As the cognitive avoidance score increased, the presence of high HLA decreased by nearly 33%. (OR: 0.666, 95% CI = 0.512-0.867; P = 0.002). Conclusion: This study emphasized that a higher HLA was associated with increased behavioral avoidance and decreased cognitive avoidance from COVID-19. HLA has led to doing what needed to be done without being affected by negative discourses.

The Normative Study of Acoustic and Aerodynamic Characteristics of Voice among Healthy Adult Turkish Speaker Population.

Phonatory Aerodynamic System (PAS Model 6600) is an evaluation instrument that assesses the effectiveness of surgical interventions, treatments, and therapy for voice disorders. It can be used for the assessment of voice disorders by supporting other perceptual and instrumental methods. It is important to establish normative data, because the use of appropriate norms is necessary for diagnostic and descriptive accuracy. Therefore, this study is aimed primarily at establishing adult normative databases for phonatory aerodynamic measures obtained with the KayPENTAX PAS Model 6600 among healthy adult Turkish speakers and then examining the effect of age, gender, and age-gender interaction variables on these measures. The contribution of the study is considered so important since it will generate normative data for all measurements-except the mean pitch-by the five protocols of PAS for the first time. Two hundred and six healthy Turkish speakers with normal voice (106 women and 100 men) were included in the study and stratified into three age groups. Forty-five phonatory aerodynamic measures across five PAS protocols (vital capacity, maximum sustained phonation, comfortable sustained phonation, variation in sound pressure level, and voicing efficiency) were collected. Age, gender, and age-gender interaction variables were analyzed for 45 PAS parameters. Significant gender and age effect was found for 30 and 19 variables, respectively. Gender-age interaction together was observed for only 6 parameters. Significant differences were not found for the remaining 10 parameters. Significant age and gender effects were observed for 35 phonatory and aerodynamic measures which are essential part of the objective clinical assessment of voice. Consequently, normative data used as reference in voice assessment should be generated according to age and gender differences.

Determination of radioactivity level of water supply network in Trabzon province, Turkey.

In the present study, the radioactivity levels of water samples collected from the main water supply network in Trabzon province and districts and soil samples taken from the vicinity of the water network were measured. An Alphaguard-PQ2000 radon gas detector was used to determine the seasonal radon gas level in the water samples. An HPGe detector was used to determine the level of radioactivity in soil and water samples. The average concentration of 222Rn in drinking water ranges from 0.56 ± 0.51 to 13.3 ± 5 Bq L-1. In water samples, average gross alpha and gross beta values were measured as 8 ± 1 and 43 ± 1 mBq L-1, respectively. The average concentrations of 238U, 232Th, 137Cs, 40K radionuclides in soil were measured as 51 ± 2, 21 ± 2, 16 ± 1, 28 ± 7 Bq m-3, respectively. The average concentrations of 238U, 232Th, 137Cs, 40K radionuclides in drinking water were measured as 147 ± 5, 25 ± 2, 77 ± 2, 12 ± 2 mBq L-1, respectively. When the radon concentrations for drinking water were examined, it was found that the radon concentration of the three samples was above the limit value (11 Bq L-1) allowed by the US-EPA for drinking water. All other results are below the limit values.